The Kansas City Chiefs have basically nothing left to accomplish. They won the last Super Bowl and the Super Bowl before that. They’ve won their division every year since 2015, and they haven’t finished below .500 since 2012. Their tight end is dating the most famous living American. Life is good.
How, then, do you stay motivated ahead of a season where you’ll be chasing history? If you’re quarterback Patrick Mahomes, you play with the limits of what is possible in an American football game.
Mahomes has been doing that his entire career, but on Wednesday he threatened to take things up a notch by dialing up a behind-the-back pass to running back Carson Steele during the Chiefs’ minicamp.
The two-time MVP feigned taking off running before firing a basketball-style pass in Steele’s direction, which the UCLA product deftly caught with one hand.
Mahomes previously has talked about unleashing the behind-the-back pass in a gameāand he has the approval of Chiefs coach Andy Reid.
“Coach Reid wants me to throw it behind-the-back more than anyone in the world,” Mahomes said on a First Things First appearance in May. “He deliberately puts in plays that when I have the opportunity to throw it. It’s not a coaching thing, it’s me not having that confidence to do it in the game. One of these games, man. We gotta do it. There’s too much hype in it. Hopefully it’s to Travis [Kelce].”
Kansas City opens its season on Sept. 5 against the Baltimore Ravens. We’ll see whether the pass comes with it.